COVID-19 has upended the lives of millions of individuals and families already struggling to make ends meet and many more who find themselves asking for help for the first time. Given the overwhelming need, I embarked on a bipartisan effort to support a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and nonprofits like United Way Worldwide (UWW) that provide last mile delivery of critical food supplies to vulnerable Americans.

Hunger in America is skyrocketing. Feeding America estimates that 54 million people (one in six) could face hunger this year, including 18 million children (one in four).

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As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I believe that it is imperative that USDA help ensure that America’s food supply is accessible to those who need it the most.

This is why I support the Farmers to Families Food Program, which helps provide meat, dairy and produce from America’s farmers and ranchers who themselves have seen markets shift as a result of COVID-19. The difficultly is ensuring the prompt and safe delivery of these boxes of food to those who are food insecure, especially the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities, caretakers of children and low-income essential workers. This is also why nonprofit programs like the UWW Ride United program are so important.

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